The Healer’s Art
I didn’t break my first bone until I was 17, but I visited my first doctor many years before.
I grew up with an odd fever syndrome that came and went every six weeks. 105 degree fevers each time. I remember two distinct moments hallucinating that the room was splitting and shifting and another when bees were covering the corner of my bunk. The delirium was real.
Eventually it went away. But there was also a doctor there each time I got sick. One for me, to take my blood. One for my mom, to try to comfort and counsel her.
I’m grateful for doctors of the mind who help alleviate sicknesses of stress, anxiety, depression, etc. I know more people with some type of recurring emotional distress than I know without. I see the benefits reaped by those who seek emotional healing through therapy. I’m proud of the friends who struggle, but who don’t struggle alone. The only way out, is with.
I’m grateful for healers of the soul. Christ invited everyone to change their ways by letting go of the things that didn’t bring them true happiness, and focus on the things that do. In one invitation, he urged us to come unto him “that I may heal you”. I’ve witnessed spiritual healing through prayer, which is the process of going from feeling forgotten to then knowing I am a child of God and he has a plan for me.
He Came to Heal
This to me is the meaning of Christmas: healing. Freedom from bruised bodies, broken minds, or hurting hearts. He came to be broken, so that we may be healed.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
He will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Alma 7:12
Not all healing happens in an instant, and sometimes some things don’t fully heal or heal at all. But I’m grateful healing is possible and there are doctors in the constant pursuit of it. And I’m grateful for friends who have, at times, helped heal me in all these ways.
Most of us won’t be known as doctors. But all of us try the best we can to help heal our loved ones, such as healing a child with a band aid, a spouse with a hug, a friend with a lunch. Thank you for doing the work of Christmas, all year round.
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Bryan lives somewhere at the intersection of faith, fatherhood, and futurism and writes about tech, books, Christianity, gratitude, and whatever’s on his mind. If you liked reading, perhaps you’ll also like subscribing: